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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
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2323 registered gamers and 3358 games. 7895 GameLogs with 13390 journal entries. 5126 games are currently being played.
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New Super Mario Brothers (DS) by haruki |
| Interesting re-innovation of a classic platformer game. |
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most recent entry: Thursday 6 March, 2008
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Game Log Entry #2:
Game Play 2:
After another two hours of playing this game, I couldn’t help but obtain a slight addiction to the game. Getting Mario through the levels over and over again, sometimes performing better, sometimes worse, and sometimes even discovering new rooms within a specific level is really exciting. There’s also the cute graphic and music to motivate me on too. I have finally reached the big castle in the first map and have even unlocked a few of what I call “Mushroom Toad Super Houses” to play the little side games and gain rewards of sustenance to aid me through the levels.
Having introduced my roommate, who has pretty little background with videogames, to the original Super Mario Brothers before, I was curious to see what she thought of the New Super Mario Brothers game for DS. We’ve developed a weird social interaction with the game where we both related to the frustrations of completing each level. We also found enjoyment though our verbal outcries and descriptions during the game. One of the comments she made about one of the levels that got me laughing was, “Whoa…colorful mushrooms! This is LSD land!” when Mario got to a level that involved giant mushrooms and brightly colored backgrounds, then pondered on what type of person could come up with such…bright colored mushroom-filled fantasies. I found it particularly amusing how when we encountered a swimming level where the screen scrolls, she exclaimed, “Nooo! How can that be possible?! He died being pressed against the screen! This is illogical! On top of that, how come he falls off the screen every time he dies?” In a way, we have developed an odd social connection and amusement with Mario through the lack of logic and the weird oddities the game has. I cannot wait until we play Katamari Damacy and hear her comments about it as well.
Design:
There are certainly new designs and featured innovated from the original that I enjoyed immensely in this game. My favorite thus far is the introduction of new power ups. I grew a personal fondness to the blue turtle shell that Mario is able to slip himself into and spin around furiously, annihilating all enemies in the way. There’s also the impenetrable and protective use of the shell that adds as a definitely plus. Despite which, the game doesn’t fail to create a challenge by giving that wonderful blue shell the horrible flaw of incontrollable spins, where Mario is immediately deflected from bumping into solid objects that are not enemies, like walls and pipes, making it easy to go off track and fall off a cliff. Mario also walks slower with the shell on, which only makes sense, and is limited a little bit in his jumping abilities. Another aesthetically pleasing power up that I enjoy is the giant yellow mushroom, where it makes Mario into a GIGANTIC Super Mario, walking through and crushing everything in his path. Like all good things, good things never last where the mushroom has a limited time use, which stinks, but hey, there's that aspect of challenge that can't be neglected in game design.
Another addition to this Mario game is the feature of what I call the “butt slam” (sorry) that Mario is able to perform. Rather than always going under platforms to jump and collide with the bricks or boxes, Mario can also just jump on top of it to trigger the same thing! There's definitely more flexibility enabled in the game, Mario can also jump off walls too, which gives the player a lot more freedom to reach higher places.
The new designs and features were very pleasing to play with. The visual image of the game was also fantastic. Though the artwork is 3D and definitely has higher quality graphical imagery than the past 2D Mario, overall the game works in very similar ways with a 2D path of right, left, and jump. It’s a new and improved version of Mario that still retains its classical feel.
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